Hydrogen economy assessment for long-term energy systems in Japan (In case you missed it.)

[NNadir]

The paper I'll reference in this post is this one:

T. Ohtsuka, M. Akiyama, T. Saito, Y. Ishizaki, A. Suzuki, N. Negishi, J. Moriya, K. Hoashi, T. Hoshino, Hydrogen economy assessment for long-term energy systems in Japan, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Volume 7, Issue 6, 1982 Pages 455-462

In case you missed it 42 years ago, here it is. None of this "hydrogen economy" bullshit is new. The cult reappears every decade or so.

Back then, as is the case now, the "plan" for a "hydrogen economy" was basically an effort to greenwash fossil fuels, destroying exergy as they planned to go (and still do), since the hydrogen was supposed to be made using fossil fuels, with a little nuclear energy squandered on the side.

A graphic from the paper:



The paper was received for publication on July 14, 1982, early in the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, the proto-Trump, who died from Alzheimer's disease 20 years ago.

In the week of beginning July 11, 1982, the week the paper was received, the concentration of the dangerous fossil fuel waste was 342.13. As of this morning, it was reported thus:

Week beginning on December 15, 2024: 424.96 ppm
Weekly value from 1 year ago: 422.40 ppm
Weekly value from 10 years ago: 399.32 ppm
Last updated: December 21, 2024

Weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa

It would seem that 42 years of hydrogen bullshit, (on and off as people recognize it's bullshit and then forget that it's bullshit) did very little to prevent increases in the concentration of fossil fuel waste by almost 82 ppm. Of course now, - now the fossil fuel sales people looking to rebrand their product as "hydrogen" always show Potemkin vast landscapes trashed with solar cells to pretend their product is "green." It isn't. It's a fossil fuel product.

A Giant Climate Lie: When they're selling hydrogen, what they're really selling is fossil fuels.

Have a nice weekend, Happy Holidays, and good luck with all the shopping for consumer items, hopefully not to include home electrolyzers.

[hunter]

1. The physical properties of hydrogen haven't changed since then.

Reality is like that.

[NNadir]

2. A "hydrogen economy" is one of those stupid ideas whose popularity runs in cycles. The laws of physics are not...

...subject, however, to popularity.

The famous logical fallacy is this one: Appeal to Popularity.

Of course, it's a very popular fallacy here and throughout our culture, and a lot of what's happening in our collapsing world can be attributed to it, not merely with respect to energy, but in many other areas as well, including the scary rise of fascism around the world. This will not play out any better in the 2020's than it did in the 1930's.

Hydrogen, the worst of the bad ideas that claim storing energy is "green," is just a symptom. I've seen it wax and wane over four or five times in my life, and when I was young, uneducated, and naive, I actually believed that a "hydrogen economy" was a good idea, but since, I've learned a lot about bad thinking and of course, I received and sought education.

I do believe or at least strongly respect that the slick ads for hydrogen here are too slick to be the randomized work of an individual with a misplaced passion. Then again, I have myself, on issues of nuclear science, been accused to being a shill, probably hundreds, if not thousands, of times, particularly at the antinuke dominated website DailyKos, so I reserve definitive judgement.

I recused myself while serving on the MIRT team when the person I regard as a fossil fuel greenwasher showed up, and anyway, don't actually regret doing so. It's fun to air out this stupidity, since the dumb idea of a "hydrogen economy" never seems to die its deserved death.